Everything Isn’t Total Shit: A Few Good Things Happened Recently

Citizens Bank announced this week that it is ending its relationship with CoreCivic and GEO Group — two of the largest private prison corporations in the U.S. with massive ICE contracts ranging from detention to transportation to surveillance.

The announcement comes after months of a massive public pressure campaign spearheaded by the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition and several other groups across the U.S.

“Today’s announcement that Citizens Bank will exit its current lending relationships with private prison giants CoreCivic and The GEO Group is an important victory for the people who refused to let a major bank finance human suffering brought on by ICE detention activities of the current federal administration,” said the De-ICE Citizens Bank Coalition, in a statement.

On Tuesday, Representatives Debbie Dingell (D-MI-06) and Yvette Clarke (D-NY-09) introduced the “Menopausal Workers’ Fairness Act,” which would expand workplace protections for employees experiencing menopause.

The bill would direct the EEOC to create guidelines for employers to better understand and accommodate employees experiencing menopause; guarantee the right to request accommodations to known limitations related to menopause; prevent discrimination based on limitations or accommodations relating to menopause.

On Monday, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced the launch of NYC Parks’ first-ever “Parents’ Night Out,” which they describe as a “free, one-night drop-off program that gives parents and caregivers the opportunity to enjoy an evening to themselves while children participate in supervised fun at select NYC Parks recreation centers across the five boroughs.”

The program is open to families with children ages 6 to 13 and will provide free child care at designated city recreation centers on August 16.

“Making New York City more affordable isn’t just about lowering costs, it’s about giving people back their time. This administration is committed to making it easier to raise a family in the greatest city in the world,” Mayor Mamdani said in a statement.

Effective July 19, large companies across the EU are prohibited from destroying unused clothing in an effort to prevent the waste of valuable products and the resources used to make them.

Under the new rules, businesses must prioritize keeping products in use by selling them (through discounts or alternative markets), donating them to charities, or preparing them for reuse (repairing, refurbishing or remanufacturing).

On July 13, the World Health Organization validated El Salvador as having eliminated trachoma – the world’ leading infectious cause of blindness – as a public health problem.

According to a statement from WHO, “Between 2023 and 2026, El Salvador conducted targeted assessments in communities prioritized based on environmental and social risk factors. These assessments found no evidence of active transmission of trachoma. No signs of the disease were detected in children, and no advanced cases capable of causing blindness were found in adults.” El Salvador is the first country in Central America and the second in the Americas to achieve this milestone.

According to satellite data published by Brazil’s National Space Agency, deforestation in the Amazon rainforest has fallen to its lowest levels in the past ten years.

Between January and June 2025, a total of 807 square miles of deforestation was recorded in the Brazilian Amazon. In the same months of 2026, the total deforested area was 500 sq mi, marking a 38 percent decrease.

New Mexicio’s Department of Finance and Administration (DFA), which administers the state’s Animal Welfare Program, has announced funding for seventeen animal shelters across the state to improve conditions and the care of animals.

Funding has been allocated for projects including for the renovation of a surgical suite, kennel renovations, play yard construction, and more.

Green councillors, who lead Bristol’s city council, officially declared the city a “city of harm reduction,” pledging to focus on helping treating users of illegal drugs rather than punishing them.

City council said the declaration was a clear signal that public health rather than criminal justice solutions are needed to tackle the UK’s drug crisis.

Outside of the city council meeting, Abdul Malik, a Green councillor and mosque leader said, “This is not about encouraging drug use or normalizing addiction. It is about recognizing a simple truth: after 55 years, we cannot honestly say prohibition on its own has solved this problem and we have a responsibility to look at what the evidence tells us does work. If this motion helps one more person into treatment, prevents one more overdose, reduces crime on our streets and spares one more family from unimaginable loss, then it is worth doing.”

“What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something.” – Howard Zinn